Block228
by Sutherland
Summary: In the Battle for Vogen, the fight for building 568


Block 228 Battle for Vogen  
  
I sat with my back to the wall, me and the rest of the squad were resting in this building after we took it from the rebels. They had the building fortified. Just like every other damn building of theirs. We had been clawing the city back, building by building, block by block. It came at horrendous cost in lives however. I lost a man in the fight to take this building, Private Martin. He was good, but one of the desperate rebels on the top floor put his lasrifle into full auto and blew his guts all over the people behind him. I charged up after the rebel had run out of charges in his gun and tore him apart with my chainsword.  
  
So now the squad was down to four men... I had lost 5 on the first day of the fighting. I remember the first day of the fighting. I was still pretty green then, and wasn't the ranking officer. I remember entering the city with the rest of the squad. It had been hammered by Imperial Navy Bolts from orbit. Not a building was left whole. I thought that no way in hell could anything have lived through that. Then 2 minutes walk down the street and Sergeant Romero got a sniper round through the head, blowing gore and brains everywhere. As if on cue, sewer rats swarmed up from a manhole behind us and charged. It quickly became a brutal melee and 4 people died before someone from another squad charged and gave us some aid, incinerating the ratlings squad with a flamer.  
  
I didn't think it would be easy after that. And it wasn't, the rebels had turned every street corner building into a fortress it seemed, and to make it worse Chaos Space Marines Night Lords were leading bolt counter attacks and destroying the already battered morale of the Cadians Imperial Guard Regiment. We still hadn't been able to counter them effectively. Private Pinkerton gave a shout from the window.  
  
"Hey, HEY! Corporal Garret is here." He said  
  
"Yes, to give us fresh orders no doubt." I replied  
  
That arose grumbles and growls from the men. Fresh orders meant we were moving out. Moving out meant we were throwing ourselves against another building. I grabbed my helmet off the floor beside me and strapped it on. I went down the stairs to meet our 'guest'.  
  
"Sergeant Jack, good to see you still whole." He said when I reached the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Good to see you too" I replied, somewhat sarcastically "What do we have to do now?"  
  
He handed me a bit of paper.  
  
"The Rebels have holed up in a building about a block away, its about 5 stories high and they seem to have a sniper in every window! We need that building before they reinforce it from below."  
  
I looked at the little piece of paper he had given me. It showed where our building was, and theirs. A quick look at the map had me worried.  
  
"There is only two ways to approach it! We will get mowed down!" I exclaimed  
  
"That's were I come in, I have also ordered some ratlings down into the sewers to blow up the buildings beside building 568. That will give you some cover and more room to approach from." He said  
  
I looked at him and just turned around to go upstairs. When I reached the top of the stairs the men looked at me expectantly.  
  
"Well, we're moving out."  
  
Sergeant Skop moved ahead of the rest of the squad. You couldn't see anything that was 2 feet in front of you down here, even though I was a ratling. I gripped the stock of my lasrifle tightly. It was well know that the rebels had their own sewer rats down here.  
  
Skop motioned us forward and to make no noise. We must be getting close... we moved silently. We move through a little tunnel and it emptied into a large room, this must be were we plant the charges. Skop motioned me to go over to a large beam at the other end of the room and plant my charges. I went over planted my charge, set them to go off in an hour or when I hit the switch. We left with all the charges set, without incident. Now to the next building.  
  
Sergeant Skop had to turn on a flashlight to see the map for a second. Then he led us through an absolute labyrinth of tunnels and corridors. Then we came to another room, like the first but longer. We were at one end. Skop and Daron went to plant their charges. The first two pillars were fine, but when Skop and Daron got to the center of the room, all hell broke loose.  
  
I looked through my binoculars at the building we were supposed to take. The two buildings were still standing... I put my binoculars down and ducked down into cover before a sniper saw me. The men were getting uneasy. They wanted to get it over with, so did, by the looks of it, every other squad that was supposed to be doing this. We were just waiting for a VOX signal to start attacking. Suddenly the VOX radio piped up.  
  
I screamed into my VOX communicator "GO! GO! ATTACK NOW! WE'VE DONE ALL WE CAN!" I hit the detonator on my charges in the building that we had just left. We had just walked into a trap. Sergeant Skop and Daron were dead in the middle of the room, blood and gore all over the place. They were halfway through the room when the rebels opened up. Our squad of eleven reduced to 6 in minutes. I switched my gun to full auto and motioned to what was now MY squad.  
  
"All right guys!" I screamed above the sound of the rebels shooting "When I say go throw all your grenades, I'll give cover fire and we will pull the hell out and detonate the charges from there!"  
  
They all agreed whole heartedly.  
  
I gave the signal and all of us threw our grenades over our makeshift barricade. It didn't matter where they landed as long as they were far enough from us! I heard the chain of small explosions and stood up and pulled the trigger. las beams tore though the smoke from my weapon. Soon they caught on and opened up, trying to find the point from where I was shooting from but I was being to random for them to pinpoint me. After my squad had pulled out I backed out, firing the whole time. A beam tore past me, sizzling my flesh in a near miss. I gritted my teeth through the pain and kept walking backwards, out.  
  
When we were about 10 feet away I heard the rebels coming after us and hit the switch on the charges. A deafening explosion shook the sewers, dust falling from the ceiling. We all hit the ground, but the rebels weren't so lucky. They were almost right beside the charges when they went off. All that was left was rubble, gore, and bodies.  
  
"Come on, we've done all we can."  
  
With that I turned with my squad and headed back to friendly territory.  
  
We all knew it was now or never. We came swarming up, out of cover and charged. The alley way was a death trap, we lost many men, but when we got to the rubble it was better. I charged through the rubble, climbing over it, ignoring all the small cuts I got.  
  
Ahead of me lay building 568, raining death down upon us. One of them had set up a heavy bolter in one of the windows and started to rain death down on us, peppering the rubble with small explosions, anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the fire was blown to bits.  
  
I charged up to the building and slammed my back to the wall. I snapped a few grenades off my belt and threw them into the window above, where lasfire was pouring out from. The grenades went off with deafening force, and above the explosion, I heard the screams of the wounded and dieing.  
  
A rocket team at the other end of the rubble fired a rocket at the heavy bolter. It hit the building with tooth loosening force and even if it didn't hit the bolter, the operators were going to keep their head down.  
  
I took a deep breath and charged it through the door. Shooting as I went, screaming litanies of justice of the Emperor, I knew I had to move fast, one grenade could end the charge before it began. I charged into another room, slamming down the door and opening fire. Three rebels went down screaming but another stabbed at me with his bayonet. I lifted my rifle to block the blow and it did, but it destroyed the rifle. I drew out my chainsword and las pistol. He was about to make another jab when I shot him in the face with my pistol. He didn't even scream, as his brains blew out the back of his head.  
  
I left the room and charged upstairs, past another squad who was too scared to make the charge. I screamed at them  
  
"FOR THE EMPEROR! CHARGE OR YOU TOO WILL BE CALLED TRAITOR!"  
  
They didn't even think, they charged forward with me. I ran into the room and the rebels were waiting. 2 opened fire and I instinctively dived forward into a prone position, stabbing one with my chainsword, making a disgusting ripping sound as it tore him apart. The two shots fired by the rebels hit some poor soldier behind me, he died screaming as his blood pooled on the ground and wall. Then the other imperial soldiers charged in. two more going down to las fire before it degenerated into a brutal melee. I ran another through with my chainsword after he opened himself up to attack after a poorly executed bayonet attack. Another jabbed at me and I spun around and hacked off his head. The remaining rebels tried to run up stairs only to be shot to pieces by the imperial squad with me.  
  
I charged into the next room, this whole floor had to be cleared. A lone rebel sniper stood there. His back turned. He turned as he heard me charging, he didn't ask for quarter and none was given. He blocked my first blow with his rifle, but wasn't fast enough to dodge the point blank pistol shot to his chest. He died screaming as I charged into the next room...  
  
Ever more soldiers were there, and they opened up on me. I had to run out the room to avoid being overwhelmed. I hastily grabbed a grenade off of my belt and threw it into the room. I heard the yells and screams of terror before the grenade went off. I charged in and finished the remaining soldiers off.  
  
I was about to charge up the stairs, but I looked up first, to see a barricade at the top. I ducked out of the way as las fire sizzled the air where I was a second before. I fell back to the other set of stairs where the squad I had left had a similar problem. Two men had tried to charge up, they were at the bottom of the stairs now, torn to pieces by las fire. Suddenly I had a good idea (which is rare for me). I walked into another room and grabbed char that had somehow survived. I took into the room with the stairs, stood up on it. I ordered the squad into the next room. They complied. I shot a hole in the ceiling and pulled the last grenade off of my belt and stuck it in the hole. I then ran out of the room. I dived into the next room as I heard the explosion rock the next room, and the screams from the rebels on the floor above.  
  
"CHARGE! CHARGE! GO NOW!" I screamed at the squad. More imperial soldiers swarmed up the stairs to back us up. One man was ahead of my on the stairs he tried to move the barricade and got shot point blank in the face with a lasrifle. His brains and blood sprayed on me and the other people charging up the stairs. I started shooting with my laspistol and started hacking at the barricade with my chainsword. Woodchips and splinters flew everywhere and finally the barricade collapsed and I charged through with the rest of the squad. Las fire erupted from everywhere and I threw my self to the ground and opened up with my pistol. More imperialists charged through and more rebels came charging through creating one big massive melee with the rebels driven by desperation. Another imperial squad charged up the stairs and the rebels started to lose the battle. I ran one through as another imperial charged up behind me shooting all the rebels in front of me to pieces. Blood and gore was everywhere, the screams of the dieing and wounded, yells and shouts, orders from sergeants and las fire.  
  
After that floor was captured the rest of the building had minimal resistance. I sat with my back to the wall on the top floor. 2 of my men sat in chairs around a table playing cards. My other man was sleeping in a corner. Private Pinkerton had taken a bolter round outside and I could barely recognize his body. We buried him in the rubble and marked his grave with a cross.  
  
I wonder how long it would take before we were all dead... 


End file.
